Saturday, August 15, 2015

Businesses avoid Arizona because ...

Julie Erfle makes the point in her "Week in review" (snippets quoted in next post). Senator Steve Farley's version (via his Friends of Farley email) writes the same story.

The need grows every day for restoring education cuts and upping our investment to a much higher level. Is the Governor paying attention? It appears not. Yesterday, Gov. Ducey expressed to reporter Howie Fischer that he intends to push for even more tax cuts next session, rather than more education funding.

Gov. Ducey and the legislative majority constantly repeat the mantra that low business taxes will create thousands of good jobs. The truth is that the quality of our education system and training of our workforce are much more important to businesses looking to relocate or expand here than the tax climate.

The Phoenix Business Journal, a pretty conservative news source, just published an unsurprising but still shocking story on how the Arizona elected majority's focus on tax cuts is chasing away jobs and destroying our kids' chances at a decent future. Their reporter, Eric Toll, interviewed two business-relocation decisionmakers who decided to move their 3,000 jobs elsewhere instead of coming to Arizona.

They asked to remain anonymous to avoid embarrassing anyone. But their quotes should cause shame in all those who believe that low business taxes are more important than good schools and a trained workforce.

"My key managers didn’t want to relocate to Arizona despite the golf and the weather," said one decision-maker. "They were afraid they would not find good schools for their own children. They also felt that the state’s reputation for poor education would affect the ability to recruit talent from outside."

What's left to say? Well, you can win a bet that Il Duce will not say it.